Welcome to Legends of Kateria, an open plot, original fantasy board. We're a character centric board, though we do have "plot arcs" at all times. Check out the rules, and feel free to ask any questions! We'd love to have you!

There was a plan in motion. A plan that Max didn't know about, mind you, but it was a plan nonetheless that would interfere with his own life soon. The Katerian Legion had been tipped off; apparently there would be a few Witches of the Flame passing through Coda on their way south, and the easiest way to capture them was to meet them as they came out of the tiny village.

So, of course, began the day for the Katerian Legion. And so began Max's morning, to some extent; he traveled to Fort Lina to visit his brother (a trip he took monthly, so it was no big thing), but was told that they were all taking a trip to Coda. Which was, certainly, a mistake on the guard's part, as he hadn't clarified that this sort of information was supposed to be classified. Not to mention the fact that he'd told classified information in the first place.

Either way, Max figured it was just another mission of many, so he hightailed it right on out there to meet up with his brother for the day, perhaps grab an ale at the local tavern. Okay, Norman didn't really drink ale, but it was a fun idea nonetheless. He waited near the south side of Coda, too, his eyebrows raised as he looked left to right. Surely they would pass through here eventually, right? Or show some sign of their presence... little did he realize that he was already surrounded by them.

Either way, no one appeared. He seemed to be alone, though there was some sort of strange sensation of being watched. He was lucky, too, that he wasn't alone for the time being. The guards, which of course had already mistaken him as a Witch of the Flame, were simply waiting on his "friends" before they took him down.

Ever since the incident, Morgan wasn't a fan of towns. She didn't like going near them, she didn't like going around them, and she certainly didn't like passing through them. Her picture, much like the pictures of all of the other witches, was posted on every flat surface it would fit on, and just the idea of being seen and recognized made her stomach twist in something like anger and nerves. She bit her tongue when a trip through Coda was suggested, however, as she was never really one to argue with Winifred. She had no room to, after all; when everything went down, Winifred and the other witches literally became the only family she had, even if they weren't her family at all. She appreciated them and she trusted them, which was more than she could say for anyone else.

So despite her better judgement and despite how little she trusted the rest of the world, she followed her companions with no complaint. She was, however, perhaps too eager to get to and through the town, though, because in the end she ended up walking faster than the rest of the group. Somehow by the time she actually reached Coda, she was yards and yards in front of the other witches, though she hardly noticed. Much like every other waking minute of her life, her mind was clouded with thoughts, even voices, and she could hardly concentrate on any one specific thing.

To say that she wasn't watching where she was going would be an understatement, too; she kept her head down and her eyes unfocused as she walked the streets, which in the end was a huge, huge mistake. The feeling of another body against hers and the impact that followed sent her backwards with ridiculous force. She blinked, gasped, and snapped her head up, though she didn't immediately recognize the person she'd ran into, which was both good and bad.

Good because he wasn't a part of the Legion, as far as she could tell, but bad because he could just be some random bounty hunter. She sized him up in a matter of seconds, noting how he appeared to be waiting for something, or someone. That thought alone had her scrambling to her feet and drawing the small dagger that she kept but never used, her eyes narrowed as she stared at him.

Max wasn't quite as unfocused and inattentive as the girl in front of him, not at all. In fact, he'd realized her presence just a little while before, but he paused if only to watch her in curiosity. To be honest, he half expected her to be someone in the Katerian Legion to come tell him where his damn brother was, but she didn't look like she was, not at all. She looked a little... uh... different, to be honest. But he didn't judge, of course.

As she ran into him, though, he sort of stumbled backward, his brow furrowed as he looked back over at her. What was that all about? Was this some sort of strange code? You run into someone and then... wait, what? Was that a dagger? Was this some sort of strange thieves' code?

"Oh, oh dear god," he gulped, his eyes widening as he looked to her. "I have, uh... I have uh..." He started searching through his pockets, pulling out a very, very small coin purse that had maybe two coins in it total. He threw it to the ground, his hands raised. "That's all I've got, uh... I uh..." Had he thought through it, he might have fled. But sadly, the thought of seeing his brother kept him rooted to the spot, robbed or not.

"Listen, I uh... man, that dagger looks sharp, I uh..." He swallowed, looking around; it appeared as though they were alone, though. Could he run away? Using that ability exhausted him, to tell the truth, and he still had to walk all the way home. Maybe he could just talk her down from hurting him, right? Something like that... "That's really all I have. I really mean you no harm."

Was this man absolutely fool? Morgandy took a step back for a second before narrowing her eyes at him again; not only was he stuttering, but he was digging through his pockets and throwing a purse down at her like she was some kind of thief. She would have been offended about such an accusation too, had she not been still riddled with paranoia and fear. He was just play a part, she figured; he was acting defenseless and innocent in a sad, awful attempt to get her to drop her guard. The joke was on him, though, she figured; she never dropped her guard to anyone.

He played a damn convincing part, though, and she watched with a stoic expression as he panicked visibly before her. "Don't act daft,' she hissed, shaking her head and nudging his coin purse back over to him with her foot. "I'm not as dense as you think I am, I won't fall for that trick. Just let us pass and act like we weren't here and everything will be okay."

Truthfully, those words probably should have been spoken by Winifred, but considering how far behind she was lagging, that wasn't exactly possibly. She, though, was the more levelheaded and charismatic of the group, and she would have probably looked a little less obvious, too. Morgan, however, was practically screaming her identity out to everyone with the way she was acting.

That didn't stop her, though. In her mind, she was doing her fellow witches a great justice by scaring the guy before her, or attempting to. Despite the fact that she literally had no offensive powers in her human form at all, she was trying to be threatening.

Daft? Was he being daft? He legitimately had no idea what to do when she moved his coin purse back at him, and as such he just looked to her desperately for a few moments. If she didn't want his money, then what did she want? His life? His... okay, he wouldn't complete that thought. Either way, he just blinked at her, his eyes wide. "I don't understand--" He started, as he really didn't understand, but unfortunately he was interrupted before he could say much.

Clearly her words were the magic words, as suddenly arrows were raining down at them. Not only that, but soldiers were charging their way as if they'd been stationed there all along, and had the girl actually glanced over at Max, she would have seen his innocence in a short moment. He was about to crumble to pieces, his heart locked in his throat as he looked around for some sort of way to exit the scene. There was one closing in on them, though, so without another glance in her direction, he grabbed her by the wrist and fled.

He wasn't sure why he took her along. It wasn't as if she'd been nice to him, after all, but he didn't like the idea of someone dying when he could have done something to reverse it. Either way, in just a few short moments they had practically materialized somewhere else, somewhere in the distance quite a ways away from where the guards were. But the guards were quick; they turned to see them further away, and now all Max could do was run in his actual form, his hand still locked firmly around her wrist. Hopefully she would have better ideas...

He was still playing dumb, it seemed. Had Morgan been thinking logically, she might have realized that the poor guy really didn't know anything. She was actually normally a logical person, too, but the sight of her sister dying and the idea that she was still ostracized flickered through her mind so much that it was hard to believe anything the man was saying. He was speaking again, too, though she hardly got a chance to reply. Suddenly the sky and land seemed to be closing in on them; Morgan glanced around, wide-eyed, though the sight that she saw hardly surprised her.

Soldiers, and a lot of them, were running in their direction, and she shot a glare over at the man. He had tricked her, she figured. As soon as she took in his face and his expression, however, she was proven very, very wrong. He looked surprised, genuinely surprised. She was thrown off at that alone, too, though she suddenly realized that she was probably about to die, and that she had absolutely no way to escape either.

The guy had her by the wrist, though, and despite being confused as all get out, she ran after him as he tugged her along. She blinked as they both seemed to speed up remarkably though she hardly had a chance to figure out what the hell had just happened. Instead, she kept glancing back at the soldiers and noting that they still weren't far enough away for them to be safe.

Her eyes closed for a second as she tried desperately to shift. She'd never been able to do it without being provoked before, but now was as good a time as any to learn, right? She tried and tried, too, and just as she was about to give up, she allowed herself to vividly imagine Kezia's death and in an instant she felt her bones and body rearranging. Claws grew where her hands were and eventually her entire hume form changed into one of a large dragon, Max clasping gently in her claw.

Max really hated this short timeshifting ability. Older wizards with the ability could move a hell of a lot faster and for a lot longer than he could, but his was a few seconds at best. He wasn't very physically powerful on top of that, either, so he was pretty much screwed when his first strategy didn't work. Which, judging by the fact that the soldiers were rerouting, it didn't.

He just watched for a while, his eyes widening, though eventually the feeling of being grasped caused him to shift his attention back to the girl's direction. But in place of the girl was instead a dragon, and he was sort of floating in midair now. Needless to say he panicked for a few moments-- where had this dragon come from, and where did that girl go?-- before finally allowing logic to take over. She was a therianthrope. That made sense, right? He'd never really heard one as a dragon, but he supposed he was being chased for no reason by guards a second ago, too. This day was just turning out to be all sorts of strange.

Either way, his gaze turned back to the guards as he held onto her claw. Some of them were retreating, but a select few were still braving it for some strange reason or another. In his desperation, he looked back over at the dragon, his brow furrowed. As usual, he didn't think of blazing them all away with fire, so much as escaping; death wasn't something he thought of easily.

"Can't you just fly? Can you do that? Let's get the hell out of here!"

Morgan had absolutely no idea how or even why she managed to conjure her dragon form without literally being angered into it, but she appreciated it all the same. She also had no idea why she'd grabbed the insolent boy from before but she wasn't about to let him go, either; not yet, at least. She wasn't exactly heartless, despite the trust issues and cold demeanor she carried with her. Her mind was literally a whir of panic and fear, too; she'd seen what the legion could do for her very eyes, so she wasn't exactly ready to face them just yet, or ever, honestly. Revenge was on her mind, sure, but not like this.

So she glanced back, much like Max did, to see a few soldiers trailing behind. He seemed to pipe up right about then, too, and she growled over at him, rather irritated with his rather obvious implication. She complied, though, raising her wings to the sky and speeding up just enough to fly up higher. Within a matter of seconds, the guards below them became nothing but specs and she slowed down, growling out a sigh as she tried to find somewhere to land.

Her dragon form was something she'd literally never mastered, so she had absolutely no idea how long she could hold onto it. Luckily shortly she found a nearby mountain top and dropped Max gently to the ground before she started to land, her body shifting back half-way through her descent.

She plopped to the ground with a sigh and shook her head, her eyes narrowed at the ground as she realized what had just happened. That had been an ambush and she wondered, desperately, if the rest of her companions made it through okay. She regretted leaving them behind, too, but for once she had no choice.

If you'd told Max five minutes ago that he'd be not only in the clutch of a dragon, but also soaring through the skies shortly, he likely would have laughed and gone on his merry way. Yet here he was, taking in the view of a lifetime; in spite of the panic swirling at the pit of his stomach, he knew this was a rare treat. No one could fly-- other than therianthropes, that is-- so this was something he had to commit to memory. He didn't have to try, though, considering this was something he already couldn't forget.

He was almost disappointed as they descended, though as his feet met ground, he realized that he'd been holding his breath. His knees shook slightly and he came to a sitting position, pulling his legs indian style underneath him. Now that the flying experience was over, all of the questions from before came rushing back to him.

"How do you--" He started, but he figured that much was obvious. Therianthropes weren't usually open about who they were, but they did exist. He'd seen a few phase before, but that didn't mean it didn't shock him every time. "Well-- why? Not why you transformed, I get that. But why where those guys chasing after us?"

He didn't stop to think that it might have been her they were after. For some odd reason, the whole dragon thing didn't freak him out. She was human, after all; if she killed she'd have the same penalty as any other normal human being, right? So why would she be denied trust?

"I didn't do anything wrong that I know of..." He appeared to be wracking his poor brain for a solution, his brow furrowed and his fingertip to his chin.

After thudding to the ground, Morgan just sat there for a second on her knees, her head down and her eyes closed. The thought of being lost for a while came to mind and it scared her; she'd never been alone, ever. After Kezia died, she'd found Winifred, and before that her sister was always around, but now? Now, as she turned her head and looked back down at the barely visible world below, she couldn't figure out where she was, where her clan was, and more importantly, how to get back to them without getting herself or them killed in the process. It was dangerous to travel anywhere near towns now, it seemed, especially with what seemed like a specific, trained army of soldiers after them, and she, most of all, didn't want to put any one of the witches in danger.

And while she hadn't necessarily forgotten about the boy's presence beside her, she certainly wasn't thinking about how to cart him along to wherever she went, either. She'd mostly just written him off as someone who was along for the ride, and while she didn't trust him at all, she could at least sense that he wasn't a soldier simply from the way he ran and freaked out at the sight of them, much like she had. She actually expected him to run away screaming from her, too, so she mostly ignored him.

Or, she ignored him until she couldn't anymore, at least. His words brought a strange reality onto her, and she blinked and looked over at him with a shocked expression. He was asking stupid questions, surely. He could easily figure out who she was simply by the fact that her and the rest of the witches were all posted on every board in every town ever. If that wasn't enough, he could have figured out simply by the transformation and by the fact that she was a dragon that she wasn't exactly Kateria's best friend.

She shook her head regardless, however, and sighed as she stood. "Don't worry about it,' she started, dusting off her knees and trying to erase the memories that she had to think about to transform in the process. "They weren't after you." She was turning away, too, fully ready to leave the guy behind and go about her business, though had she stopped to think about it, she would have realized just exactly how much she couldn't do that.